Small Bites: Estes Is Moving, Dame, Hey Luigi, and More

Estes is moving to Concordia. The’ve been in residency at Broder Nord since January 2025, and in January 2026 they’ll be moving into their own brick-and-mortar space. Their final day of service at Broder was Wednesday, December 31 and they hope to open at the new location in the second week of January.

That new location is located on NE 30th Avenue just north of Killingsworth, “in the old Nonna space.” But this location has had a more recent tenant, which leads us to …

Pleasure Mountain has closed. Since early January 2025, they have operated in the space where Estes is moving into. Pleasure Mountain’s final day of service was Monday, December 29. I reached out to Jim for an update and he replied, “We garnered a passionate following, but overall the response was very limited and there just weren’t enough customers to sustain the business.” Best wishes to him and his team on whatever is next for them.

Very sorry to see them close. As a reminder, Flour Market has also closed in that corner of town; their final day of service was Sunday, December 28. Wishing Estes the best as they establish themselves on this strip with a history of deliciousness. 5513 NE 30th Avenue, Portland

New Aperitivo Hour at Hey Luigi. Tuesdays through Saturdays from 3pm to 5pm there’s an Aperitivo Hour at Hey Luigi in Slabtown, with tasty bites like warm shrimp cocktail and open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches (cheese toasties?). Also, specially priced spritzes, cocktails, wine, and beer. Enjoy it before dinner or just on its own. 2175 NW Raleigh Street, Portland

Deadstock will re-open in Old Town. In their announcement about closing their OG space in Old Town, they said, “but we’re gonna be back!” And they are true to their word—in late February or March, look for them in the cafe space at The Hoxton Hotel. 15 NW 4th Avenue, Portland

Ishtar Gate has opened a new location in Troutdale. Their first day was yesterday, serving up Iraqi food in what used to be a Shari’s—this casual dining chain started out in 1978 and closed all their Oregon locations in October 2024. The various locatios are transitioning to all sorts of new restaurants. Look for Ishtar Gate on NW Phoenix Drive. 557 NW Phoenix Drive, Troutdale

Ames Meat Research has a new home. We mentioned back in October that they were going to have to close due to their host space (Milwaukie Floral) closing. At the time, they were not sure where they’d land but they have a space now: outside The Little Blue Store! It’s very close to their previous home, too. They said on Instagram, “We hope to reopen in Feb, no later than March. The response has been so positive and I really believe that it’s going to be great!”

They go on to talk about the wooden fence (to the right of the building) that will be taken down and the space behind it paved. There will then be space for two food carts, one of them being Ames and the other one TBD. There’s a lawn that they hope to use, too, for events and playing corn hole and the like. Plus, don’t forget the great Ethiopian food served inside the building. All in all, this sounds pretty rad. 2936 SE Washington Street, Milwaukie

“Oregon has become one of my favorite places to eat in the entire country.” So says Abby Price for Business Insider. She highlighted Portland’s Matt’s BBQ, the craft beer scene in the state, and The Pine Tavern and Spork in Bend. Multiple locations

BBANG! will move into the old 28 Tigers space. 28 Tigers shut down in December, making room for BBANG!, which is the sister restaurant to Doyaji, a Korean BBQ food truck at CORE (and that cart is staying at CORE). Bbang means “bread” in Korean, and BBANG! will serve Korean-style sandwiches and burgers. And, they’ll be right next to Holy Ghost bar. 4105 SE 28th Avenue, Portland

Red Hen Bagelry comes to Red Sauce Pizza. Deirdre Tipley, Red Hen Bagelry’s owner, announced that they’ll be “ending the wholesale side of the business and transitioning to a residency at Red Sauce Pizza.” You can stop in at Red Sauce on Saturday and Sunday mornings to start, to access their bagels. This will commence the weekend of January 24 and 25. 4641 NE Fremont Street, Portland

And speaking of Red Sauce, they’ve got some new tavern pies. They showed them off on Instagram. Looks like the options are pepperoni, Bleu d’Auvergne cheese, and hot honey; pickled peppers, pickled jalapeños, and Rosi’s hot oil; a white pie with pickled peppers and corn; and another white pie with artichoke, green olives, and red onion. See ’em all here on the ‘gram. 4641 NE Fremont Street, Portland

Reddit discusses Portland chefs and where they’ve gone (if they’ve left). Lots of chitter chatter about those with a history of cooking in town. Read it here.

This month’s special flavors at Kate’s. There are two pretty tasty sounding specials this month at Kate’s Ice cream. They are Chocolate Orange Honeecomb: “Gooey housemade vegan honeecomb with pure orange essence in a salted dark chocolate ice vcream.” And Coffee Cake: “Our classic coffee ice cream with crunchy coffee cake bites and swirls of cinnamon sugar filling.” Sign me up. 3713 N Mississippi Avenue and 1430 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland

And it’s Veganuary, too. We usually focus on Dry January when it comes to January’s monthlong food and drink theme, but a lot of people like to give vegan eating a try in this first month of the year. And Portland is a great place to eat vegan—WalletHub proclaimed Portland as the best city for vegans and vegetarians in 2025.

So where to eat? There’s these that come to mind immediately:

• The new Adelleda and Vtopian duo that opened in the old Flour Bloom space.
• Epif, which recently reimagined itself to a daytime cafe.
• Astera is a vegan fine dining restaurant (the chef recently changed his name to Aaron Casañas) that I hope to dine at this year.
• Norah made one of my favorite bites this year: their charred cabbage dish.
• I adore the baked goods coming out of the Orange & Blossom bakery these days.
• Our article about World Vegan Month this year mentions a lot of vegan places, too.

So yeah, why not give vegan food a try this year! Multiple locations

Painful closures. Michael Russell at The O published his roundup of 10 restaurant closures in 2025 that really bummed him out. Multiple locations

More Reeva heartbreak. They are selling the truck: “The Reeva project will not be able to operate for the foreseeable future.” The process to get Roberto back is taking longer than expected and it also requires Roberto to stay in Mexico during it all. It is a real hardship on his family, in more ways than one.

The sale price for the pizza truck is $50,000 OBO. Read more about it on Instagram. 7727 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

Dame has closed. This is a BFD. Their final day of service was Wednesday, December 31.

Dana Frank and Jane Smith opened Dame in September 2016 as a restaurant focusing on natural wines. Dana left in summer 2017 to open Bar Norman, which has since closed. Eli Dahlin, Dame’s opening chef, left earlier that year. In 2019 Jane changed up the whole thing at Dame, transitioning Dame into a series of well-regarded chef residencies, starting with Patrick McKee and Estes, as well as Kei Ohdera and John Schaible at Pasture. Other residencies include No Saint, Clandestino, Chelo, Ma Cher, and others.

Jane wrote on the Dame Instagram, “We worked with people so talented it took your breath away—and had staff struggling so hard it broke your heart. Chefs and cooks working incredibly hard day in and day out … guests never knowing how much it took—to give.” Farewell, Dame, you were a gem. 2930 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland

This also means Ma Cher has closed. It was beyond their control, as you can imagine, and they are looking for a new space for their work. 2930 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland

And Chelo has closed. This makes sense because of their location (Dame). Looks like they closed as of Friday, December 19, 2025. 2930 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland

We’ve updated our festivals lists. Both the Portland Area Cultural + Food Festivals and Portland Food and Drink Festivals lists are fresh for 2026. As usually, we will update them as the year progresses.

Vegan pâté development going on at Van Nien. They are “researching and developing a vegan pâté to introduce Bánh Mì Vạn Xuân” for the spring. Looks like the pâté will be nut-based. This sandwich will involve the baguette with Tường An, which is a Vietnamese plant-based butter; the pâté’; vegan chả lụa & vegan shredded pork skin (bì); red chili sauce; plus cucumber, carrot, chili pepper, and cilantro; maybe even some avocado. 2525 SE 118th Avenue, Portland

Gresham has an annual gingerbread house competition. Part of “Christmas at the Museum,” they were displayed at the Gresham History Museum. This year’s theme was “Christmas Through the Ages” and bakers competed in both Professional and Non-Professional categories. Additionally, there was a People’s Choice category, which was the result of votes by museum visitors. You can see the winners, here. 410 N Main Avenue, Gresham

Love of the NA drink menu from Gourdet and Charles. Known for many things—his time at Departure, establishing Kann and Sousol, a cookbook, and work in NYC—Gregory Gourdet has also been public about his journey to sobriety. At his restaurants he takes his NA drink programs seriously. For an article on KOIN, they interviewed him and General Manager Elishca Charles, who spoke about their NA wines. IMO, NA wines do have some catching up to do compared to beer or mocktails.

She noted “sober owned, woman owned,” Jøyus sparkling wine, which is based in the PNW. About them, she said, “The flavor is absolutely delicious. You get that Pacific Northwest blackberry, still get the strawberry flavor and it’s just great. You get the fruit on the front end but it’s still dry, you still get all the bubbles and really have to think for a minute and remind yourself that there isn’t alcohol, cause it tastes like you’re drinking a delicious sparkling wine.” I will say that sparkling NA wines do pass better than the others. Regardless, sounds like something to check out during Dry January.

Readers are curious about what’s up with 555 NW 12th Avenue. I mentioned this property in our recent roundup of restaurants we’re looking forward to in 2026, and readers have commented on it. This is the project that Brian Malarkey (Le Coq in San Diego; Hawkeye & Huckleberry Lounge in Bend; judge for Guy’s Grocery Games, and Chopped). Here are two comments:

“I just took a quick walk in the neighborhood and connected your article with some activity down the street. I don’t know what it will be (and the construction workers were busy sawing into the concrete floor so I couldn’t really ask them), but renovations are literally happening right now at 555 NW 12th. This space has been vacant for so long; I’m really looking forward to whatever it ends up becoming!”

“The 555 NW 12th Ave property has been empty for 8+ years. In the last 3 weeks there have been construction crews working there cutting into the concrete floors to fit plumbing and drains in a way that looks like a big kitchen is going in.” 555 NW 12th Avenue, Portland

Shuttered Beaverton Starbucks will become a Trung Nguyen Legend cafe. I believe the Starbucks closed last spring. The Trung Nguyen is going in at the Beaverton Town Square shopping center, located next door to the Gyro To Go. Signage is up, windows papered over. This is the second Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe that I know of in Oregon. 11405 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton

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Stories you may have missed this week on Bridgetown Bites:

King Cakes in Portland: Where to Find Them in 2026
Restaurants Opening in Portland in 2026: What We’re Excited About
Dry January 2026 in Portland: Mocktails, Zero Proof and More